Page 36 of The Obsession

“Don’t you ever come to my workplace again,” I hissed.

He looked surprised but recovered himself and nodded. “I’m sorry, Dee. I guess I got impatient. I just wanted to see you so badly. Anyway, are you done? Should we go?”

“I’m taking the bus home,” I said.

“No, you’re not,” he said easily. “Come on, I’ll drive you.”

I inhaled, ready to roar at him, shove him back, tell him to get the hell out of my life, when the door swung open and Lisa walked out. She cocked her head to one side when she spotted me and Logan.

“What are you kids still doing here?” she chirped in her tiny, sweet librarian voice. My heart thudded at how angry she must be right now, though she was hiding it very well.

“I came to pick Delilah up,” Logan said.

“I didn’t know you had a boyfriend!” she said. “That is so cute.”

I have her a weak smile.

“Delilah’s told me so much about her job and how great it is working for you.”

“She has?” Lisa’s eyebrows disappeared into her hairline.

I shook my head quickly. “He’s exaggerating.” I imagined stabbing Logan right in the head. How dare he come here, and talk to my employer, and invade the only space that’s mine, and—

Lisa laughed. “Okay, sorry to cut this short, but I have to rush off. You kids have fun!” she said before walking off, her skirt swishing in time with her ponytail. Only I caught the glimpse of coldness in her eyes, and the sight of it twisted like a knife in my guts.

“Let’s go,” I growled and headed out of the library without waiting for him.

I refused to look at him throughout the car ride. I stared straight ahead, ignoring all of his attempts at making conversation. I’d show him what a miserable asshole I could be when I put my mind to it. I frowned when he pulled up in front of a supermarket but refused to give him the satisfaction of asking what we were doing here.

“Come on, we’ve got a bit of shopping to do,” he said.

I closed my eyes for a moment, drawing from that kernel of rage, letting my anger get good and hot, then turned to face him. “Cut the crap, Logan. I’m not playing your game anymore.”

His eyebrows knitted together. “But Dee—”

“I’m not. It’s over. You can go to the cops or whatever. I’d rather be in prison than do this with you.” The last two words were spat out, dripping with revulsion. I leaned back, every inch of my skin prickling, battle drums throbbing through my veins.

Logan blinked and ran his fingers through his hair. “I mean… I don’t know what to say. I thought things were going so well. You got along really well with the girls, and—”

“I don’t have a problem with ‘the girls.’ I have a problem with you!”

Logan shook his head, his face a mask of sadness. “I’m really sorry you feel that way, Dee. Fine. All right.”

I could have leapt up, punched my way through the car roof and clouds and through the atmosphere. I called him out on his bluff and it worked! I was going to be free of this nightmare.

There was a click—Logan had unbuckled his seat belt. I watched for a second, bemused, as he got out of the car and walked across the parking lot toward the supermarket. He stopped at the old pay phone out front, took out his wallet—

I scrambled to unlock my seat belt, shot out of the car—too slow, too fucking slow. Images flashed through my mind as I ran—the red and blue flashes of cop cars screeching into the parking lot, everybody watching, phones flashing as I got cuffed and pushed inside a cop car, me in an orange jumpsuit, Mom sobbing, “Why, Dee, why did you do it?”

His fingers moved across the buttons, pushed three numbers. He glanced up, saw me running, and smiled apologetically.

I reached him just as he said, “Yes, I’d like to report a murder. The murder of Detective Brandon Jackson.”

I grabbed his arm, tried to wrench the phone out of his hand, but he was a lacrosse player, and I might as well be made of marshmallow. Weak, soft. I couldn’t budge him. I could only whisper, “Sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, please hang up now, please please please.” A couple of shoppers came out of the store, glanced at us, and kept going.

Logan watched me in silence for a moment, while the operator said something.

Just as I thought my heart would tear itself out of my rib cage, Logan smiled, showing a flash of beautifully straight teeth, and said, “Oops, sorry, I was mistaken. Thanks for your time!” and hung up.

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